The Faculty of Law at the University of Copenhagen announces a number of fully funded PhD positions to commence in February 2027 Full-time

PhD Programme at the Faculty of Law

The Faculty of Law is one of the four original faculties at the founding of the University of Copenhagen in 1479. The Faculty excels in a strong breadth of research, ranging from doctrinal legal research to interdisciplinary research, from national to international research, and from fundamental research to applied and practice-oriented research. The Faculty hosts two centres of excellence, and its research environments have been highly successful in attracting external funding for legal research.

The Faculty of Law ranks among the leading and most attractive legal research environments in Europe and seeks to take an agenda-setting role by contributing to societal solutions within legal scholarship, not only in Denmark, but also across the Nordic region, Europe, and internationally.

The PhD programme The goal of the PhD programme is threefold:

• To educate a new generation of scholars to produce high-quality independent research;
• To equip PhD candidates with analytical and problem-solving skills required for a successful career in academia or in other positions in both the public and private sectors.
• To create societal impact through the production of new knowledge and research skills.

The Faculty of Law offers supervision by highly qualified academics and provides opportunity to research contemporary legal issues in an intellectually stimulating environment.

The call is open to applicants from across the field of legal scholarship, and the Faculty of Law has a particular interest in proposals for PhD projects that fall within the research areas encompassed by the obligatory courses of the Danish Bachelor of Laws (LL.B). These include, in particular, Company law, Property and Creditor Law, Law of Obligations, Family Law and Law of Wills and Succession, Legal history, Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure, as well as the BA-elective course Labour Law; see further The Bachelor Degree (LL.B.) – University of Copenhagen (ku.dk). PhD students are required to:

• Conduct independent and high-quality research under the supervision of a senior member of academic staff at the Faculty.
• Actively engage in the research environment at the University of Copenhagen, for example by participating in the day-to-day activities of the research community, in courses and meetings, as well as in national and international conferences relevant to their research project.
• Comply with the formal requirements of the PhD programme.
• Contribute to teaching undergraduate and graduate level courses offered by the Faculty of Law.

Qualifications

• Applicants must have obtained a legal science master's degree (120 ECTS) or equivalent.
• The degree must correspond to the Danish Master of Laws degree which is a second cycle 120 ECTS degree (two years of full-time studies) that builds on a 180 ECTS Bachelor's degree (three years of full-time studies) or equivalent qualifications. Alternatively, applicants with a non-Danish master's degree must have an education that is at least on par with and comparable to a Danish bachelor's degree and have professional qualifications at master's level. Applicants must have obtained a minimum overall grade average of 8.2 or above at the Master's level in accordance with the Danish grading scale (for Danish scale, see here ) as well as a Master's thesis graded at 10 or higher (or equivalent for applicants with a foreign educational background).
• Applicants may submit their application before they have completed their Master's degree. The Master's degree must be obtained before the start date.
• Applicants must document an aptitude for research through the meritorious assessment of their final thesis, publications, or academic recommendations in order to show that they are capable of undertaking the demanding task of writing a PhD thesis.
• Applicants must have excellent language skills in English and have excellent communications skills.

Application procedure Click 'Apply now' below to be taken to the online application form.

We advise you to have the following documents ready before you begin your online application:

• Project description (max. 12,000 characters incl. spaces excluding bibliography). Please follow the guidelines on project descriptions available here: Admission requirements and application procedures – University of Copenhagen .
• Curriculum vitae (maximum 2 pages).
• Diplomas and transcripts. Certified copies of original diploma(s) and transcripts (both Bachelor's and Master's degree) in the original language and an authorized English translation if they are issued in other language than English or Danish.
• Grading scale . A certified explanation of grading scale in the original language and an authorized English translation if it is available in other language than English or Danish.
• Suggested supervisor . The name of a member of academic staff whom you wish to have assigned as your supervisor. You do not need to contact the supervisor but simply make a request in your application.
• Letter of motivation. Explaining the choice of the Faculty of Law at the University of Copenhagen as a host institution for the proposed project and outlines how the project fits within the research priorities at the Faculty (maximum 1 page).

AI: If generative artificial intelligence is employed during the preparation of the project description, it should be used responsibly and disclosed with full transparency in the designated part of the application.

Submit your application electronically in Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, or English. University of Copenhagen wishes to reflect the surrounding society and therefore encourages all interested parties regardless of personal background to apply for the position.

The recruitment process Following the application deadline the Head of the PhD School, with recommendation from the Appointment Committee, will pre-select PhD applications that will proceed to the assessment stage. Applicants are pre-selected for further assessment in line with the Faculty's recruitment needs as described in this job advertisement. This is carried out based on the overall assessment of the applicant's educational qualifications, the quality of the submitted research proposal and its relevance to the Faculty's research agenda, and other relevant qualifications (e.g. relevant professional experience, any previous academic publications etc.). All applicants are then notified as to whether their application has proceeded to the assessment stage. This assessment is carried out by an expert assessment committee. Selected applicants will be notified of the composition of the assessment committee. When the committee has completed its assessment, each applicant can comment on the assessment. A number of qualified applicants will be invited for an interview.

As an applicant to the University of Copenhagen, you should be prepared to undergo a security screening related to international research collaboration as part of the recruitment process. The security screening will be conducted in cases where the University deems it appropriate based on an overall assessment. Enrolment It is a prerequisite for employment that successful applicants enrol at the PhD School of the Faculty of Law. Follow the links below for further information: PhD Programmes – Guide to studies and admission .

Terms of employment Terms of appointment and salary will be in accordance with an agreement between the Ministry of Finance and The Danish Confederation of Professional Associations (AC). The salary range starts at approximately DKK 30,071 – (EUR 4,023) + an 18.07 % pension contribution. The Faculty does not provide accommodation. The PhD student has a work obligation of up to 840 hours over the 3-year period without additional pay. The work obligation can include for instance teaching. General information about the PhD programme and the requirements can be found here: https://jura.ku.dk/phd/how-to-obtain-a-phd-scholarship/admission-requirements/

Contact information We kindly encourage you to consult our website, where most questions regarding the recruitment process as well as the academic content and structure of the PhD programme are answered: Structure of the PhD programme – University of Copenhagen Recruitment process – University of Copenhagen .

If you do not find the information you are looking for, you can contact Tina Wejlgaard Damkjær: twd@jur.ku.dk . Further information about the application procedure is available from HR, e-mail: hr-soendre@hum.ku.dk, please refer to ID number: 211-2459/26-2H.

Closing date for applications The closing date for applications is 13 August 2026, 23:59 CEST .

Applications received after the deadline will not be considered. If all the required documents are not applied, your application will be rejected. Interviews are expected to take place ultimo November 2026